Welfare blogger Sue Marsh, who suffers from a rare from of Crohn’s Disease, became a trending topic on Twitter after being “kicked off the panel”, saying today that she imagined producers “got a better offer”.

Writing about her annoyance at apparently having her slot shifted from being on the panel to being in the front row of the audience, Sue adds that she was reassured by TV bosses that she wouldn’t have to make the trip to London for no reason.

“I've uncovered vast and shocking welfare stories only to find I can't get them published anywhere,” blogged Sue.

“Bumped for Egypt. Bumped for Syria. Bumped for chickens in cat outfits. (That last one's not even sarcasm!?!) Repeatedly I hear in a loop: ‘But welfare isn't a story.’”

Sue, who also had a medical appointment in the capital but stayed in the city for six hours for filming, continued: “I was emphatic with the producers from the start that I wouldn't waste my energy spoons getting to London for nothing. They assured me repeatedly that that wouldn't be the case.

“Sickies like me will also know just how much it costs in emotional energy to even contemplate a day like I had planned for yesterday. The only way I can get through them is on adrenaline.

“Bodies like mine, so used to ignoring physical crisis signals, compensate the only way they know how. As the adrenaline floods through your body it makes you feel shaky and sick. I can't eat anything significant, I get a bit hyper. That good old fight or flight response recalls echos of demands from its genetic history.

“I wouldn't even think about eating anything significant before a show like The Big Benefits Row anyway, just in case it causes some involuntary vomit to land on someone's shoes.”

Sussex-based Sue noted that when she arrived, there were other wheelchair users in attendance – but the studio could only accommodate three in total.

She claimed: “When we got to the Channel 5 studio an epic confuddle broke out. As I've also learnt, they often do when some people are faced with several people on wheels all at once. They could only take three wheelchairs. Four would apparently tip the building over into a dangerous and unforgivable fire risk. They couldn't evacuate four of us!”

“I'd been trying not to cry for about two hours by this point and the only way we were all going to get in was if I left my wheelchair in the foyer and hobbled down to the basement studio. I was the only one who could walk at all.

“I noted with great irony that the panelists had to sit on a raised platform anyway, so even if they had kept a disabled person on the panel, it's unlikely they could have overcome the first and simplest of barriers and actually got up on to the stage.”

Although Sue though that the debate was “very good” and that host Matthew Wright “held [Katie] Hopkins and [Edwina] Currie to account frequently”, she concluded that the benefits issues when relating to disability is not a top TV priority.

“How are you supposed to have a debate about social security and not include sick and disabled people?” she asked.

“As campaigners we've often reminded ourselves that ‘Alone we whisper, but together we shout’.

“I imagine that the producers of last nights BBR got a better offer than me. Someone with a higher profile who they thought might attract more viewers.

“Some suggested it could be more sinister than that, but I'm convinced that for most affluent, white, able-bodied producers, long term illness or disability simply doesn't come on to their radar.

“Another genetically-programmed response means we simply cannot believe in our own mortality or believe that any harm can ever cast shadows over our lives.”

A spokesperson for Channel 5 commented: “Our researchers asked a wide variety of people to appear on The Big Benefits Row: Live. It was conceived as a discussion featuring input from a panel of guests (changing throughout the debate) and from the studio audience. We stressed to everyone that the programme was not a conventional format and so it was very hard to say where guests would be sitting.

"Several commentators and contributors who took part in the audience did not end up featuring on the panel due to the nature of the debate. Matthew did speak to a large number of audience members and panel guests as part of the open forum."